According to Bloch and Geitner, ”machinery failures reveal a reaction chain of cause and effect… usually a deficiency commonly referred to as the symptom…”.
Forensic inquiry into the failed process or product is the starting point of failure analysis.
Witness statements can be valuable for reconstructing the likely sequence of events and hence the chain of cause and effect.
Several of the techniques used in failure analysis are also used in the analysis of no fault found (NFF) which is a term used in the field of maintenance to describe a situation where an originally reported mode of failure can't be duplicated by the evaluating technician and therefore the potential defect can't be fixed.
The term failure analysis also applies to other fields such as business management and military strategy.
In any case, one must determine the cause of failure to prevent future occurrence, and/or to improve the performance of the device, component or structure.
A failure analysis engineer requires a good amount of communication and ability to work with others.
[2] The failure analysis of many different products involves the use of the following tools and techniques: Mr. Brahimi is an American Bridge Fluor consultant and has a Masters in materials engineering.
The full fracture happened after the rod couldn’t hold under load when the crack reached a critical size.
Some did not blame the program or the department, like James Rogers who said that in an earthquake there is “a good chance the Embarcadero would do the same thing the Nimitz did.”[4] Others said more prevention could have been done.
Discerning the worst case scenario requires a complete understanding of the product, its loading and its service environment.
The engines are pushed to the max in order to ensure that the product will function the way it should no matter the condition.